My Name is Sylvia Bayten
by cocoidie-18
Summary: A young Hogwarts student recounts her time at school through a series of oneshots.
1. The Turning Point

**The Turning-Point**

My name is Sylvia Bayten. My Father was a Half-blood Slytherin. My mother was a Pureblood Slytherin. My brother was the perfect Slytherin. And then there was me. My whole life, its direction and my decisions were to be dictated by a simple question. Asked when I was just eleven. I wasn't to know how important it was then and I'm glad, for I would have thought longer if I had known. If I had known I would have made the worst mistake of my life.

"Sylvie, mum says you're in trouble!" My brother, Caleb, stood above me and declared triumphantly.

I was sitting on the garden path, with my cat. I picked her up with a sigh and thrust her at Caleb. "Scratch his eyes out, Kimba."

Caleb backed off slightly. He was annoyed because he had taken to calling me Kimba on my eleventh birthday. He'd had to explain that he'd heard some Muggleborns talking about a movie called 'The Lion King' and that was the name of the lion cub. He had thought to be funny, insinuating that I would be in Gryffindor, because he knew very well that it would never happen. To try and prove it didn't bother me, I gave the name to the kitten our Aunt had promised me. It worked. He never called me that again.

"Sylvia!" Mum's voice called from the direction of the house.

Caleb grinned at me. "Told you."

I got up and set Kimba down. "Sic him, Kimba."

Kimba yawned, stretched and lay down in a bit of sunlight with a defiant look at me.

"Sylvia!"

I shook my head at Kimba and hurried to the house.

An hour later I was still cleaning my room. I couldn't see the point. The next day was September 1st and I would be joining Caleb on the Hogwarts Express for the first time.

"_Syl_vie."

I ignored him and kept working.

"Oh _Sylvie_. Don't you want to know about the _sorting_?"

That made me pause. I had been begging Caleb to tell me how you know which house you're in ever since I got my letter but he had refused to tell me.

"Well, if you don't want to know…"

"Yes! I do, I do. Please tell me."

"Okay. They call your name and you have to do the best spell you know to prove you deserve to be there. If it is good enough, then you put on a talking hat and it tells you which house you belong in."

"I have to do a spell?"

"Yes. And it better be good. I'm telling you because I don't want you to embarrass me by not being good enough."

I don't remember much more of that day. I hardly noticed anything. My mind was racing, trying to think of a spell that would be good enough. All I could think of were curses. I had never preformed any of course but Caleb had threatened me on various occasions with this hex or that curse. I spent the evening going through my new schoolbooks trying to find a good spell that I could do.

I woke up in the morning and had to carefully peel my face off the page of The Standard Book of Spells that I had inadvertently used as a pillow. I still had no idea how I could prove I belonged at Hogwarts. I didn't have time to keep looking either as I heard my mother calling from downstairs,

"We're leaving in half an hour kids, with or without you!"

It took me twenty minutes to get dressed and race around my room repacking my books and the clothes I had taken out to reach them. Then I took my suitcase downstairs. With that done, I had five minutes to spare for breakfast. I felt a little stupid at this point. Caleb hadn't even gotten up yet and once I had had time to calm down, I knew mum's threat had been empty.

I had finished eating when Caleb entered the kitchen, bleary eyed and still in his pyjamas. "What's the time?" he croaked.

"Ten-fifteen," mum said as she walked in behind him, giving him a disapproving look.

"What's for breakfast?"

"For you it's toast and orange juice. We don't have time for you to have anything else."

Caleb looked thoughtful for a moment. "Get on that. I'll go get dressed."

Mum sighed in exasperation and called after him as he left the kitchen, "Hurry up! And where's your suitcase? Your father needs to finish packing the car."

Fifteen minutes later, we were in the car. Father was at the wheel, grumbling about all the damn Muggles taking up the road. I don't know why he was complaining, our car never got stuck in traffic, perhaps it was just that he drove very rarely.

We reached the station at five to eleven so we didn't dawdle getting our luggage. We ran to platform 9 as fast as was possible, father pulled our trolleys and we carried our animals. We were soon going through the barrier to platform 9 ¾.

"Two minutes," mum said in relief.

Caleb took his suitcase off his trolley and left, calling goodbye over his shoulder. Mum answered while father started pushing my trolley towards the train.

"I can do it," I said but father didn't seem to hear me. "I wonder what house I'll be in," I mused to try and get a reaction, though the thought made my stomach churn, _'if I'm good enough to even be chosen.'_

"You'll be in Slytherin," father replied without looking at me. "Our whole family has been in Slytherin."

"What about grandpa Joe?"

"Yes, well. Considering his… circumstances, Ravenclaw is just as good."

Joe was dad's father. He was Muggleborn but father would always reassure us that if he hadn't been so disadvantaged, he would have been a Slytherin too.

Father lifted my suitcase onto the train as the whistle blew. I was seized from behind and squeezed by mum. "Be good, darling and don't forget to write."

"Okay mum, I have to go now. The train's leaving."

I was on the steps before I remembered and turned back. "Kim-"

Father was there holding out Kimba's cage.

"Goodbye, Sylvia."

"Goodbye, father."

The train lurched as it began moving and I moved further into the train, Kimba under one arm, as I struggled to drag my suitcase along. The trains movement made it a lot more difficult than it would have otherwise been.

"New student?"

I turned to see a couple of older boys looking at me. "Oh, er… yes," I replied cautiously, suspicious of what they wanted.

"Here." Before I could react they seized my suitcase and hoisted it into the air.

I had no choice but to follow. They found a compartment with space, its occupants looking as lost as I felt, and stowed my suitcase for me.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Want?" one of the boys asked, surprised. "Let me ask you something. What house do you think you'll be in?"

"Slytherin," I replied, a lot more confidently than I felt.

"Thought so. That lot do nothing for free."

With that confusing statement they left. The trip to Hogwarts was long. None of us much felt like talking. I discovered I was correct in thinking everyone else in the compartment were new students too. We introduced ourselves but then hardly a word was spoken.

Sometime during the train ride I changed into my robes. We arrived at Hogwarts and followed a giant of a man to the boats. Others have said that they will never forget their first glimpse of Hogwarts but I hardly saw it as my panic steadily built.

All I could manage was to stay in line as we moved closer towards my humiliation. I thought for a moment that my brother might have been lying about the sorting but then I heard the last of the professor's instructions.

"… place the hat on your head and you will be sorted into your house."

I felt a tightening in my chest.

"Bayten, Sylvia."

I couldn't breath everyone was waiting to see what I could do. I don't remember what I did exactly but I remember what I aimed at must have been magical because my spell rebounded and hit one of the other new students full in the face. Nobody was more horrified than me. I received detention for my stupidity and the enmity of the girl I had hit, but that was later. A very angry teacher told me to hurry up and put on the hat, once the laughter had been silenced.

I did so, trying not to cry. It was a battle I knew I would lose but I really didn't want to start in front of the whole school.

_"Well, well,"_ said an amused small voice in my ear. _"Where should I put you?"_

I didn't answer all I could think about was my brother. _'How could he?'_

_"Where do you wish to go?"_

I was angry and hurt. All I wanted right then was, "Where I belong."

_"Where you belong, eh?"_

The hats tone worried me.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

I took off the hat and my eyes were drawn to my brother. His hands were raised to clap and a half-formed smile was frozen on his lips. Despite everything he had expected me to be in Slytherin. By the slow reaction the hats announcement got, so had almost everyone else.

From that moment on, nothing was the same for me. My mother took it well enough but after my sorting she seemed wary of me, treating me like some new acquaintance. My brother told everyone at school I had been adopted, to distance himself from what he saw as my disgrace. I let them all believe it, for I might as well have been.

Where do you wish to go. If I had said Slytherin, how different my life would have been. I would never have understood the strength of mercy, the importance of integrity. Things that, as a Slytherin, I would have seen as weaknesses. Then, I would have really been a fool.


	2. The Embrace

"Boy, why are you crying?"

The small boy looked up at me. "I don't want to be in Hufflepuff. Even Slytherin is better than Hufflepuff."

"How so?"

"Hufflepuff is for people who don't belong anywhere else. The unexceptional ones."

"Not true. Everyone who gets into Hogwarts is exceptional. Hufflepuff is for those with a true heart. Loyal, honest and just. You should be proud."

"Nobody likes me there. Being a Hufflepuff means I'm not brave, smart or ambitious!"

"Let me tell you a story…"

* * *

My name is Sylvia Bayten. I am a Hufflepuff. My Father was a Half-blood Slytherin, my mother a Pureblood Slytherin. My brother, the perfect Slytherin. And then there was me. The "black sheep" of the family. After my first six months at Hogwarts, I had yet to make any real friends. I felt so out of place. I was on first name basis with a couple of the girls in my dorm but I didn't feel comfortable socialising with them. If there was no one around, my brother, Caleb, would take the time to berate me about getting put into Hufflepuff. Otherwise he would ignore me. I spent most of my spare time in the library. I had dreaded the Christmas holidays my first year, I considered staying at school but it would have only made things worse. Not that things weren't awkward at home.

I was relieved to be going back to school at the end of the holidays. Mother had tiptoed around me for the whole two weeks, hugging me at random moments and she was always close to tears at meal times. The only times I saw my father. Father was… well.

We were back on platform 9 ¾.. "Goodbye mother," I said awkwardly, standing in front of her unsure what to do.

Mother's mouth twitched into a brief smile. She opened her mouth, glanced at father and closed it again.

"Goodbye father." I was not surprised when I got no reaction. For the whole holidays father had barely looked at me once. He didn't even glance in my direction, didn't even flinch when I hugged him and he called as I walked to the train,

"Goodbye Caleb!"

I found an empty compartment, sat with my back to the window and cried.

"Are you ok, Sylvia?"

It was Fausta. One of the girls in my dorm. I hurriedly brushed the tears from my eyes and smiled blearily up at her.

"Yes. Fine."

Fausta came in. "I saw you saying goodbye to your parents." Nothing else needed to be said. My eyes again filled with tears as she put an arm around me.

"I'm sorry. I know I'm supposed to be strong. I shouldn't cry, I should be grown up but I can't help it."

"Sylvie, it's ok to cry sometimes, and I'd say this is one of those times."

"I'd say she could do with taking her own advice. Boo hoo, mummy doesn't love me!"

Neither of us had noticed Belinda Shaw come in. Belinda and I had been enemies from our first day at Hogwarts when, during the sorting ceremony, I had accidentally hit her in the face with the engorgio spell. I still can't believe I had believed my brother and done that.

"Leave her alone Belinda," said Fausta, still with an arm around me.

"Ooh! The Hufflepuff is going to huff and puff at me! Stay out of this foster."

"My name is Fausta."

"I know."

"For a Ravenclaw, you're not too smart," I blurted in my anger.

Belinda glared at me. "At least the sorting hat didn't make a mistake when it placed me. It shouldn't have allowed _you_ in at all."

That one hit home. I'd been feeling like I didn't belong all year and Belinda knew. I could tell from her triumphant expression as she turned and left.

"Sylvia, it isn't true. She's just trying to get to you."

"Isn't it? I'm not exactly the best student."

"But you're not the worst either."

"Then why don't I have any friends? Why don't I fit in?"

Fausta took her arm off my shoulders and turned to face me. "The same reason you didn't get into Slytherin."

"What do you mean?"

"Look, Sylvie. I'm not trying to be mean but it's like you're ashamed of being in Hufflepuff."

"No! I-"

"Listen, it's okay. It's just… how can you expect to have friends, how can you expect to fit in, when you are afraid of what the Slytherins think? Of what your brother will think? You avoid us in public and wonder why we don't make any effort to befriend you."

"You make me sound conceited," I replied, feeling the worst I'd felt all year.

Fausta got up. "On the rare occasion that you forget who your parents want you to be, I wish you would let it go. Be honest with yourself, Sylvia. You know what I'm telling you is true."

Fausta left me to my thoughts.

* * *

"What has that got to do with me?" the boy asked when I didn't continue.

I smiled down at him. "Everything. The Sorting Hat has been sorting students since the founding of Hogwarts. Give Hufflepuff a chance. Make the effort to make friends first. Accept what you have been given and you will discover rare gifts."

"Gifts?" he asked in disbelief.

"True friends and a place you belong are two of the rarest gifts of all."


End file.
